Our Favorite Meals

These are the meals that I regularly cook for my family:

Our top 6 favorites (can you tell we like Mexican?):

Honey Lime Enchiladas

Lime Chicken Tacos

Sweet n Sour Chicken Tacos or over quinoa or rice

Chicken Taquitos

Fried Tacos

Chicken Lazone

Bacon, Potato Beef Pie
Baked Potato Chicken Casserole

Baked Spaghetti
Baked Turkey and Gravy
Baked Ziti
Barbeque Chicken (on rice/Sand/or w/ bacon and cheese)
BarBQ beef cups

BarBQ Chicken Soup
Beef Tenderloin (only on special occasions :)
Beefaroni
Bierocks
Breakfast Casserole
Brian's Chicken Casserole
Broccoli Chowder with Monte Cristo Sandwiches
Burgers
Caramelized Easy Chicken
Cheesy Chicken Nuggets
Chicken Alfredo
Chicken Bacon Ranch Pasta
Chicken Bacon Wild Rice Soup
Chicken Cordon Blue
Chicken Cordon Blue Casserole
Chicken Divane Soup

Chicken Lazone

Chicken, grilled, with lime and cilantro
Chicken Parmesan

Chicken/Turkey Pot Pie
Chicken Salad
Chicken Mexican Crockpot Dinner
Chicken Taquitos
Chicken Tortilla Soup
Chicken Divane
Chicken-Apple-Cheese Bake
Chili -- over spaghetti, chips, or potatoes
Corn and Cheese Chowder with grilled ham and cheese sand.
Cranberry Chicken
Creamy Chicken Spinach Pasta
Cream Cheese Chicken Chili
Crockpot Roast with veggies
Enchiladas
Grilled Chicken Salad with strawberries/grapes/almonds/whatever in fridge :)

Farmer's Market sausage skillet
Fried Tacos
Feta Salmon
Grilled Cheese (The Best Ever!)
Ground Beef Pie Topped with Bacon Twice Baked Potatoes
Ham Biscuits
Hawaiian Chicken Pile Up
Homemade Pizza
Italian Chicken with cream sauce
Italian Cream Cheese Chicken Casserole
Kielbasa and Potatoes
Lasagna
Lime Chicken Tacos
Mandarin Chicken Salad
Mango Salsa Crockpot Chicken
Manicotti
Meatballs (barbq, Sweetn-Sour, or Swedish over rice/quinoa
Meatball Subs
Meatloaf

Pinwheel chicken
Pizza with Home-made crust
Pizza Pasta
Pesto Chicken
Pollo Fundido
Poppyseed Chicken
Potato Soup and grilled cheese
Pumpkin Chili
Pumpkin Soup and turkey, apple, cheese panini
Quesadillas -- taco, pizza, chicken-bacon-ranch, turkey and cheese, etc
Quinoa, Beans, and chicken
Sausage-Tomato Cream Pasta
Salmon Pesto Pasta
Salmon Cream Pasta

Sausage Presto Pasta

Shepherd's Pie
Sloppy Joes
Stirfry w/ onions, peppers, and other veggies-- chicken or beef
Spaghetti Squash Casserole
Smothered Cheesy Roasted Club Sandwich
Stromboli (just using my pizza dough)
Steak Fajitas
Stuffed Mexican Peppers
Sweet Chicken Tacos or over quinoa or rice
Sweet N Sour Chicken
Taco Bake
Amazing Taco Salad
Taco Soup

Tomato Soup

Our "Table Rules"

Food battles.  I never thought I would have them.  My first child was an easy eater and I thought I must be doing it right.  She loved everything I put in front of her and we have videos of her asking for more veggies right around the time most kids get picky.  She would eat taco soup with extra butternut squash and spinach added in and I could put absolutely anything in her home-made tortilla and she would gobble it up.  I didn't understand when other moms talked about food battles they had with heir children.  But then I had my second child.  She had major texture issues and then had to go dairy and gluten free for a while.  It wasn't pretty.  My first easy child took a clue from my picky eater and found her voice.  And then adding in a third very strong-willed child only made dinner time that much more exciting.  My husband had a crazy schedule for a while which meant that we didn't really have a family dinner time and I suddenly found myself with 3 adorable demanding little girls who had horrible table manners.  Something had to be done so I came up with these 6 rules and they have helped tremendously.  They aren't perfect rules for every family, but they have worked for us and I thought they might be helpful to others:

1.  Wait until we pray to eat.
2.  Before beginning, say "Thank you for the meal; the _______ looks delicious."
3.  NEVER say, "I don't like..."  Just quietly leave it on the plate.
4.  Try a bite of everything; pick at least one thing to eat completely.
5.  Do not ask for a treat unless you eat all your meat.
6.  When finished, say, "Thank you for a good meal; may I please be excused?"

My Take on Baby's First Foods

My sweet baby is now 6 1/2 months old and recently started trying out real food! Since feeding her is on my mind a lot (she begs for it anytime we are in the kitchen!), I thought I'd share my approach on feeding babies.I also highly recommend Lindsay's post on the topic: Feeding Baby Naturally, because she follows a similar thought pattern as myself and is much, much more thorough in her explanations than I am going to be. It is very interesting, easy to read, and the best simple article that I've read on the subject. I'm simply going to share what I have done with my babies, but Lindsey shares the research and reasons behind it. So if you don't have much time, read her article instead of mine because you will be much better educated. :) Another great article is Including Baby at the Family Table from the WAPF website. And if you do have time, I also highly recommend reading Nina Plank's Real Food For Mother and Baby. It is available at most libraries.

I'm all about breastfeeding if you possibly can. I know it is difficult for some people and I don't fault them for it at all. But if it is at all possible, the benefits to both Mama and baby are worth it! So I exclusively breastfeed my babies for the 1st 6 months.

Around 6 months, I usually start introducing foods to my baby. I wait until my baby can sit up all by herself, because that shows me that she is probably developmentally ready. But I don't worry about how much she eats, because at 6 months, she is still getting everything she needs from my breastmilk. I start her out on table food simply to get her used to different tastes and textures, and also so that I can eat in peace! (If she doesn't have food of her own, she is fussing and grabbing at my plate during mealtime :)

With my first baby, I pureed tons of fruits and vegetables and froze them in little ice cubes. But the 2nd time around, I totally skipped all that and was glad that I did. Instead, I just fed her whatever veggies and meat I fixed for my family for dinner. I made sure they were soft enough and would smash them with a fork if they seemed too big. I also added in a lot of butter, olive oil, or coconut oil because babies need healthy fats more than anything. I let her pick everything up and play with it and eat what she could. I didn't feed her anything with a spoon other than home-made yogurt, cod-liver oil, and a soft-boiled egg because they are just so good for her. I wanted her to develop that pincer grasp and good hand-eye coordination as well. So she mainly just fed herself. It was definitely more messy, but much less work since I did not need to puree and freeze. Plus, she was quite entertained and I could eat my dinner in peace!
I'm pretty much taking the same laid back approach with Abbi. I started giving her fermented cod liver oil around 4 months instead of the Vitamin D supplement that most pediatricians recommend. When she started acting like she wanted to eat when we did around 6 months, I first just gave her a spoonful of coconut oil or butter to chew on. Then I let her have fun with some avocado and soft-boiled egg yolks. I've also let her have plain yogurt and fresh cheese from my farmer. I will not give her any cereal because babies can't even digest it well until around a year old. I try not to let my babies have any grains until at least a year, and I'll hold off longer if possible because they need the healthy fat and protein so much more. My goal is to give my babies only real food -- not processed at all. But I'm not ridiculous about it. With Karlie, we went to visit the grandparents and Nina had bought some baby food and really enjoyed feeding Karlie with a spoon and that was fine. I knew that 90% of the time Karlie was feeding herself real food that I prepared.

I've found that around 8 months, my babies start actually "needing" to eat table food more because my milk supply can't quite keep up with their growing bodies. But that's just me. I have friends who have successfully fed their babies only breast milk until one year old. But my body just can't seem to do it. Instead of supplementing with formula, however, I just make sure my babies get enough fat and protein from real food. I continue nursing my babies every 3-4 hours during the day and give them lots of healthy, real food. I've also found that my milk supply keeps up better if I continue to wake them for a late night feeding before I go to bed even once they start sleeping through it. I know many people wouldn't want to mess up the sleep cycle, but it is worth it to me to be able to keep up my milk supply.

Eggs are truly the best food that I can give my babies. They have plenty of protein and iron and fats. They actually contain every nutrient that your body needs other than vitamin C! So I tried to make sure Karlie ate at least one egg yolk every day once she was about 8 months. (And not all eggs are created equal -- please read THIS POSTto see why free range, pastured, not-from-a-store-eggs are soooo much better! Quick synopsis: to have healthy eggs you need a healthy chicken. A healthy chicken needs lots of sunlight and bugs to eat. You can't find healthy eggs at a grocery store -- you have to get them from the farm!

I also gave Karlie a lot of avocados -- a great first food for babies because of all the healthy fat. I usually mashed it up with good quality olive oil or coconut oil to give her even more healthy fats! Some times I would mix it with plain home-made yogurt because yogurt is good for her as well and I wanted her to get used to the sour taste of unsweetened yogurt. Avocados are the perfect healthy "fast food." I kept them on hand in case I sadly did not make a healthy enough meal for my family and wanted to be sure she ate real food. They were also my first choice to take for Karlie when we went out to eat because they are just so easy!

So there's my quick overview of how I approach feeding babies. I know it might not work for some children if they have a gagging problem or other eating issues, but it has worked well for my girls so I thought I would share. Feel free to ask any questions!

**And as a disclaimer -- I am not a doctor in any way and my advice should not be taken as professional. I am simply fascinated (my husband would say obsessed :) with nutrition and have read a lot about it.

Snacks and lunches kids will eat

My girls seem to enjoy fingerfood/ snacks more than any other kind of food. They would be perfectly happy eating them for every meal! Since snacks can actually be very healthy (as well as super easy to throw together!), we often eat a combination of them for our lunches whenever we don't have leftovers from last nights dinner. I usually try to have a dairy/protein, a grain/nut, and fruit combination. Cheese chunks, almonds, and sliced apples is a favorite lunch combination, as well as plain yogurt, granola, raisins, and dehydrated coconut. Here are some of our favorite snacks/lunches, and I would love to get some more ideas to add to my list from our POH readers! Please share!

soaked and dehydrated almonds
soaked and dehydrated pecans
cheese chunks, raw if possible!
raisins
grapes, apple slices, banana, and other fruit, often with sunflower or almond butter
frozen blueberries (very messy, though, so not good for the car! But they are my girls' absolute favorite and we always keep some in the freezer for a quick fix for teething and busted lips :)
frozen or cooked peas
home-made granola
Home-made "power bars" 
dehydrated, unsweetened coconut flakes
cut up dates, often with sunflower or almond butter on them
black beans (my girls will eat them cold! But they stain as well, so be careful!)
cooked brown rice pasta (yes, they will eat that cold, as well :)
home-made crackers
mini-muffins
breakfast cookies
applesauce -- if you don't make your own, then please buy the unsweetened kind so you aren't giving your kids HFCS!!! The "original" kind is full of HFCS!
yogurt -- if you don't make your own, then try to get plain (unflavored) full-fat yogurt. It can be hard to find. When we are on the road, we get Fage Greek yogurt for the girls or Organic Stonyfield plain with the cream on top.
Coconut oil chocolate candy with raisins, slivered almonds, and coconut (a great way to get more coconut oil into them!)

Homemade cereal

How I plan meals for our family

I was asked to share about planning meals for my family on the POH blog. And Kelly is doing a "Show us Your life" -- Organization blog fest. So I thought I might as well post about how I organize our meals.

For breakfast, we usually have some kind of eggs and fruit and often some kind of grain (pancakes, waffles, toast, muffins, quinoa, oatmeal, etc.) I know you might think breakfast takes forever if I'm always cooking eggs, but it really only takes a minute to fry or scramble some eggs. And they are just so good for us! Eggs contain every nutrient your body needs except Vitamin C! Needless to say, my little family goes through 3 dozen eggs a week :) We have recently started grinding our own grain so I've been trying to make it all from scratch since its so much healthier. But I always make extra pancakes, waffles, muffins, etc, and freeze them so I really only cook such things once or twice a week. We do not usually does not eat store-bought cereal for breakfast because its processed and not really that good for us. Instead, I make my own cereal and granolato have on hand for quick breakfasts. HERE is a list of our favorite breakfasts.

I don't plan lunches because we usually just eat leftovers or a simple sandwich. We LOVEcoconut oil and it is sooooo incredibly good for us! We use it instead of mayonnaise or Ranch or other spreads on our sandwiches. It is sweet, so I've found that we no longer even need jam with our peanut butter sandwiches or syrup on our pancakes. And it makes the best greasy, healthy grilled cheese sandwich ever :)

Snacks are pretty consistent. We usually has plain, unsweetened, home-made yogurt or unsweetened applesauce with homemade granola, or we eat some fruit and cheese and almonds or pecans. And I make healthy homemade butter crackers and graham crackers that my girls ask for throughout the day when they want to munch. I'm still working on getting my husband to give up his chips and Kudos bars for snacks, but he's slowly giving in to more healthy snacks :) HERE is a list of some of our favorite snacks.

I plan my weekly dinners from an excel spreadsheet that I've made of all our favorite meals. We have over 70 options so that I'm not making the same thing in the same month. However, I usually double the recipe whenever possible and freeze a meal for a busy day, so my family definitely receives some repetition. I also LOVE to try new recipes, so I deviate from my list every so often. But its worth it, because I'm constantly finding new favorites. My goal is to have the following each week: two dinners from the freezer that I made previously, two simple, healthy meals with fresh ingredients, try out one new recipe, CORN night (clean out the refrigerator night) and cook at least one recipe that doubles and freezes well to keep my freezer stocked. Some weeks I manage this and some weeks are crazy :) I have an ongoing list on my fridge that shows what meals I have already made in the freezer so that I don't forget about them. I also have an ongoing word document on my laptop filled with recipes that I want to try. When I am planning my menu for the week, I have all three of my lists before me so its quite simple to make a plan. HERE is a list of my recipes that freeze well.

Some of these meals are more expensive than others, so we definitely don't have them as often as the others. Not all of these meals are super healthy, but I am trying to gradually change them to use more whole foods and natural ingredients. This has been a gradual process for me due to lack of funds and time and most of these recipes haven't been converted to the healthy version yet :) We do try to have fruit with every meal and veggies at least at dinner.

Traveling with Little Ones...

I've found that traveling with little ones is utterly exhausting, but very rewarding. I love all the fun memories we make and hearing my 3-year old talk about a trip for months afterwards. I am constantly amazed by all that she remembers!

Our amount of travel varies in correlation to the stages of our kids. For example, Karlie (now 16 months) absolutely HATED the car until she was a year old. She never fell asleep, even as a newborn, and I would spend the duration of our car rides turned around in an illegal manner, trying to soothe her. So her first year we traveled as little as possible. Karis (now 3), on the other hand, was an easy baby and we went on many trips throughout her first year.

Our current normal travel consists of a 3 1/2 hour trip every few months to see the grandparents and a few trips to the beach during the summer. Since our girls are at pleasant traveling stages right now and we know that next year will be more difficult with a new baby, we have decided that this is our summer/fall to travel a lot! We just recently made a huge (for us :) 7 hour trip to Seabrook Island and although the car ride was very taxing, it was well worth it! (I blogged about what I learned that particular trip HERE.) Visiting the grandparents is usually fairly easy, because once we arrive, they take care of everything! But beach trips take a lot more planning and that is currently what is going on in my head right now. Here are my thoughts/tips in no particular order:

I totally agree with Leah that snacks are a huge help! Bring lots of snacks and save them for when the kids get fussy. Here is a list of my favorite healthy snacks that I now reference when planning for trips.

Consider having the kids split a "normal" meal instead of buying them each a kids meal when eating out.My family doesn't do fast food. I'm kind of a health nut, and I'm actually starting to rub off on my husband (finally!). So on car trips, we usually stop at someplace like Cracker Barrel. (We figure it is the closest to real food we can get on the road). We love it because it gives the girls a decent break so they can stretch their legs and it helps to get some energy out. Last time, we raced them up and down the porch and danced for about 20 minutes before getting back in the car. I'm sure that people must have thought we were crazy, but it really helped the girls. Cracker Barrel is more expensive, but splitting the meal saves money. Last time, the girls and I all split a grilled chicken tender meal. Because of all the sides and bread, and it was plenty for all 3 of us.

Buy a new CD or "hide" a favorite one for about a month before a big trip. Save it for when the ride gets too long and the tempers get short. We stumbled upon an old favorite on our last trip and I was amazed at how excited the girls were to hear it again and how they instantly calmed down and stayed peaceful for the duration of the CD.

Stickers can be entertaining for quite a while! I randomly bought a pack of those neon circle label stickers at the grocery store as we were leaving town and they turned out to be the best distraction for my 16 month old. They were really easy for her to get off and she was quite happy decorating a notebook (and her car seat :) for a good 30 minutes! My 3-year old LOVES sticker books (a book with a bunch of stickers in the middle of the book and she has to figure out which page they go on).

Take lots of pictures and put them in some kind of a book as soon as possible. My daughter LOVES looking at pictures of past trips, and it helps her to remember even more. She still talks about a beach trip we took when she was just a year old because she looks at the pictures so often.

My main job when preparing for a long trip is meal planning. Our family usually tries to save money by using our kitchen instead of eating out. We might have one special night for eating out, but the rest of the meals are up to me. As much as I enjoy cooking, however, I don't want to spend my vacation slaving away. Instead, I make ahead several of these meals that freeze well and have them all ready to go in the oven when we need them.

My husband prefers duffle bags over suitcases because he says they compress easily for packing and only take up as much space as we pack. We bought THESE inexpensive bags at Target in different colors for all of us and we have been really pleased with them. Every time he packs the car, my husband mentions how glad he is that we switched to duffle bags :)

A wagon is helpful for almost every trip! We just recently got a van and have been able to bring our wagon on trips for the first time. We have taken it on a camping trip and a beach trip and have been incredibly thankful for it both times! On our last trip, we packed all the beach toys right inside it and it was all ready for us when we arrived. Our particular beach had a LONG trail to get to the shore and the girls were always grateful for a ride home after playing all morning in the hot sun.

Go with grandparents or friends whenever possible so that you can relax more and maybe even get a date with your husband!

Finger foods!

One of my friends asked me what I feed my toddler now that she pretty much refuses to be fed by my spoon. And it is tough when all of a sudden you can't feed your baby what you've been feeding her for the past couple of months. So I thought I might as well share my suggestions and maybe some other Moms would comment and give me some new ideas! So here goes:

(This post is updated in 2009 to say that I no longer feed my babies any type of grain until after their first birthday and until they have grown their 1st year molars.  Until then, they do not have the digestive juices necessary to digest grains properly.)

--I pretty much let her try any bit of fruit, veggie, or meat (if tender) that we are eating. She doesn't like casseroles, but she loves whole pieces that she can pick up and eat :)

--avocados and egg yolks-- the doc and other books I've read all say that those are the absolute best foods you can give a baby because of all the fatty acids in avocados and the protein in eggs. The avocado cuts up nicely into chunks and she loves it. I hardboil the egg and I admit its a little messy because its crumbly, but its so good for her that I still do it. I try to get her to eat at least a half an avocado and 1 egg yolk every day. She also LOVES scrambled eggs!

Chunks of cheese

Home-made granola or cereal

Pasta swirls -- I use organic brown rice pasta swirls (Tinkyada brand) and she loves them. I usually make extra and refrigerate them and give them to her to eat while I am preparing the rest of her meal so she's not impatiently waiting for me.

banana, apple, pear, and mango chunks -- She gets excited about all of them!

kiwi chunks -- Kiwi is one of the best sources of vitamin C and like avocados and sweet potatoes, are easy to take on the road because they make their own bowl when cut in half. I just use a spoon to dip out a bite for her.

Sweet potato chunks -- I make ahead of time and refrigerate. When cold, they make great chunks for her to pick up and are a great source of vitamin A.

Grapes -- I still peel and quarter them for her and she loves them!